When my difficult child was first diagnosed in Kindergarten with bipolar I had never heard of AS. I had heard a little about Autism in general but it wasn't widely talked about. That was only 5 years ago.

I think it's great they are finally making it more publicized. Now if they would just talk more about other difficult child disorders.

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't open the discussion more, Steph. Last week Rosie was talking about herself. She said she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), PTSD, and depression "among other things."

I grew up with Rosie (really). She has an extreme tendency to over exxagerate her childhood and portray it as a living he!!. I understand everyone's history and memory is thiers and thiers alone, but honestly, her childhood was what most kids dream of and it used to drive me nuts to hear her talk about it.

<font color="purple">JoG, i'm not saying you are wrong but i come from the same background rosie did...irish catholic. let me tell you the irish have mastered the art of presenting a very different picture to the outside world than what actually goes on with-in the confines. i'm not a fan of rosie's, i'm just sayin'.

I know what you're talking about Kris, I really do; the area in which we grew up was very Irish Catholic - I was Catholic. But when I tell you that I grew up with her, I mean I knew her family very well (including her siblings), our mothers were close, and I spent some time in her house throughout our childhood. Don't get me wrong, she suffered the loss of her mother at a very young age and that was certainly difficult. And her father was not the easiest man, but I'm just saying that she paints a very horrid picture and it simply wasn't any worse at her house than most everyone else we knew. We lived in a working class town in the 60's and 70's in a regular run of the mill housing development. Having been a part of the first generation of settlers that moved out from NYC into our area of LI, I can tell you that there were many families envious of us. When I hear her bash it the way she so often does, it just grates on my nerves. She makes it seem like she was locked in the closet, beaten and starved and I know that wasn't so.

I think some people make thier whole lives about where they came from instead of where they are going and I see so much of that with large media personalities, movie and tv stars and it's getting old. She has had a successful professional and public career and kudos to her for making it so! But the rest of it, I wish she would spare us.

I don't know Rosie but I can imagine that losing your mother to cancer as a young teen and growing up gay during a time when it wasn't accepted, let alone acknowledged and discussed, must have been extremely difficult.

Jo, just to clarify, Rosie's comment "among other things" was not a reference to her childhood. It was a reference to the fact that apparently she has other mental health issues that she didn't mention when she said she had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), PTSD, and depression.

I have heard comments by Rosie in the past that led me to believe her upbringing was awful. I have to say JoG that I have witnessed this in my life, adults who rather embellish how horrible their childhood years were(and it goes way beyond having to walk 10miles in the snow to get to school).

I even have a sister who for the past 45 years has blamed our parents for every bad thing that ever happened to her, even though Mom just about raised her oldest daughter while she worked. But she has no contact with us and her life is a mess, because of her horrible childhood. I have another sister and neither of us seem to be afflicted by the same awful childhood. There comes a point in everyone's adult life when they have to put their awful childhood behind them and take responsibility for their own happiness or misery. I believe that as long as you have to complain about your upbringing, the longer you can use it as an excuse for changing.

I'm sure growing up gay must have been difficult and I'm sure her parents probably had a difficult time with it but get over it already. They probably did the best they could with what they knew at the time. Not to get into a religious discussion but the Catholics are not exactly tolerant of gays even today.

Nancy

P.S. I like Rosie so I'm not trying to rag on her. The topic just got me thinking.

Hi Nancy, yes, I totally agree. I am the youngest of 5 and while all my siblings and I can admit that our house got a little crazy at times and we certainly dealt with our fair share of alcoholism, dysfunction, etc., there is ONE sister (the one just above me) who has embellished the 'horrors' of our childhood and things that we all laughed about but that she is in therapy for! Her version is so completely off the charts and she blames every negative aspect of her life on my mother - from her failed first marriage to her currently failING marriage, to her own difficult child's difficult child-ness. I mean, it's crazy. She can't understand why none of us want to go visit her...it's to the point where it simply isn't enjoyable anymore. And if you try to help her in any way, she will tell you why that won't work and becomes very irate. There is no point.

Suz, I am aware that the original comments made by Rosie had nothing to do with her childhood and it was about her difficult child-ness. I probably shouldn't have even responded to this original post, knowing how anything Rosie just sends me over the edge - lol. I'm sorry if what I said offended some of you.

And, Nancy, you're right, her parents did the best they could with what they knew at the time. Just like everyone else's.

You must have grown up in the same town that I did! Rosie went to my high school (Commack High School South) but 8 years later than me.

Did you go to Commack South? My sister in law's little sister went to school with Rosie. She still likes to tell us how she got in a fight with Rosie over cheerleading (it's a long story but had to do with Rosie's younger sister who was a cheerleader).

When Rosie still had her talk show she did a high school reunion show and two of my high school teachers were on the show. I loved seeing them again.

No offense taken, Jo. Rosie seems to be a controversial figure (and/or garners strong reactions) whether she's doing the talking or she's being talked about. I just wanted to be as specific as possible so she didn't get credited or blamed for words she didn't infer or speak.

Suz, I was aware that it was your opinion. It's my opiniuon she uses the pain that her sexual orientation caused her in childhood and her parent's possible lack of understanding or support of that, to spill over into her adult life and color some of her comments. And so I was saying she should get over it because it's my opinion she uses that as an excuse at times. Like I said, I like her, I like her views on things(it's refreshing to see someone as liberal as I remember our views were back in my day), I just think that at times she tries to draw attention to herself by embellishing how horrible it was growing up. I am boycotting The Apprentice because of how awful Trump treated her. There are times I love listening to her views and times when I have to turn her off. She has strong feelings, some I agree with and some I don't.

I think it's interesting to get a perspective on her younger years from someone who was intimately involved with her and her family.

I just finished watching my tape of the show. It was incredible. The whole hour was devoted to autism. It was informative, respectful and tender. Toni Braxton was the co-host for the day. Her 3.5 year old son was just diagnosed with autism in September. She was very weepy and overwhelmed. My heart broke for her.

20 years ago autism affected 1:10,000.

Today it's 1:166.

And they don't know why or how it happens.

It is 4 times more frequent in boys than girls but they had both as guests on the show.

But many of you probably already know these statistics.

They featured families and kids at all ends of the spectrum, from nonverbal to "cured" through early intervention ABA training. Fran, you would have loved that Temple Grandin was there! A self-described geek, she was engaging and interesting.

Suz,
I was too. I thought it might be a small segment with Toni Braxton but it wasn't. Shows like this actually help people understand what we go through and help people notice the signs before it is too late.

It tears me up to watch too much. I just can't watch the amount of struggle that it requires. Life is just so darn hard for these guys.
Temple and her mother were my inspiration. I will always be grateful for their books. I had no recipe for raising a challenging child.
I'm glad the show was on but I just can't watch anymore.

We met Temple Grandin when difficult child 3 was in Kindergarten - she was out in Australia and addressed a conference I attended. She was inspirational. I've talked about her a lot to both my boys, to encourage them (especially difficult child 1) that he can do anything, with support and enough drive.

I don't like it when people label an autistic person who appears to be functioning well, as "cured" - I consider it as "successfully adapted". If autism were curable, Temple Grandin would not have used the title "An Anthropologist on Mars" for one of her books. They always feel like outsiders looking in, always have to remember to do 'normal' things. difficult child 3 described it when he was 8 as "pretending to be normal". Both my boys now heartily embrace their autism because they see it as a good thing - they have talents and abilities they otherwise wouldn't have, and they are learning to mask the aspects that bother other people.

At the beach yesterday evening difficult child 3 & I met a 6 year old high-functioning autistic boy of our acquaintance. To most people this boy seems normal, he's already very good at blending in. But he was having so much fun playing in the water that he 'forgot to be normal'; and just let it all hang out - stims, obsessionality, the whole hand-flapping stuff - because of the pure joy he was experiencing in watching the waves wash in and out around a stick he'd poked into the sand. It was lovely to see. I know this boy will do well in life - at 6 he's already been designing electronic circuits and inventing things, for several years. An amazing kid. difficult child 3 is a bright kid, but he's in awe.

We don't get any TV program called "The View" - what is it? Anything like "60 Minutes"?

I was surprised to hear the word "cured" too, Marg. But even the boy's parents said it. His Mom wrote a book about resources. KAREN SIFF EXHORN Author, "The Autism Sourcebook"

The View is a talk show started by Barbara Walters. It's 4 or 5 women with a &lt;point of&gt; view. There have been personnel changes over the years so it's interesting. This was the first time, to my knowledge, where it's been a one topic show- usually there are many.